Did Dez catch it?

Let’s briefly set the stage here. As you surely remember, late in a 2014-season divisional playoff game against the Green Bay Packers, the Dallas Cowboys’ Dez Bryant appeared to catch a Tony Romo pass that would have put him either in the end zone or at the one-yard line. But after an official review, the pass was ruled incomplete. Referee Gene Steratore’s explanation was worthy of a Supreme Court justice itself:

“Although the receiver is possessing the football, he must maintain possession of that football throughout the entire process of the catch. In our judgement, he maintained possession, but continued to fall and never had another act common to the game. We deemed that by our judgement to be the full process of the catch, and at the time he lands and the ball hits the ground, it comes loose as it hits the ground, which would make that incomplete; although he repossesses it, it does contact the ground when he reaches, so the repossession is irrelevant because it was ruled an incomplete pass when we had the ball hit the ground.”

Kavanaugh’s Dez opinion

Here’s where Kavanaugh comes in. Speaking to a class at Marquette Law School in 2015 — which is in Packers territory, though you can decide for yourself if that affected Kavanaugh’s opinion — he used the Dez example as a way of demonstrating how separation of powers works best when the rules in play are well-known beforehand. (Link via ProFootballTalk.)

“It’s better when the rules governing a catch are set forth before Dez Bryant falls to the ground,” Kavanaugh said. “Because the rule said, that was it. If we can do it in the NFL, we can do it here as well.”

In other words, in Kavanaugh’s eyes, the rules are the rules, even if they don’t necessarily make sense on the surface. Of course, it’s worth noting that the NFL has since changed the rule to a more common-sense version; i.e., if it looks like a catch, walks like a catch, talks like a catch, it’s a freakin’ catch.

We’ll leave the legal implications of Kavanaugh’s stance to the experts, which almost surely does not include you, me, or the commenters below this article.